Our Speaker Line-Up

Gerd Leonhard

Futurist, Humanist, Author of “Technology vs. Humanity”, CEO of The Futures Agency

“People, Planet, Purpose and Prosperity” is Gerd Leonhard’s motto, and helping to create ‘The Good Future” is his key objective. Gerd is one of the top-rated futurists worldwide; he has presented at over 1700 leading conferences and events over the past 20 years and has worked with the likes of Microsoft, NBC, Visa, Google, the European Commission, L’Oréal, Audi, Deloitte and IBM. Gerd has influenced and inspired Millions to “imagine and create a better tomorrow”. He was named as one of Wired UK’s Most Influential Europeans in 2015 and is listed as #7 in the global ranking of futurists.

As a leading voice on the future of humanity, and the bestselling author of “Technology vs Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine”, Gerd has built a storied reputation as the go-to keynote speaker and thought leader when it comes to digital ethics, human-centric technology, sustainability, and the need for a new, future-fit economic logic.

Since 2020, Gerd has further developed his uniquely immersive ‘keynote television’ style and has quickly become one the most popular virtual keynote presenters worldwide. Gerd is also a former professional musician, a critically acclaimed film-maker and producer, a successfully failed .com paper-millionaire, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (London), and a Visiting Professor at the Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil.

Gerd is no stranger to media, frequently sharing his often controversial but always prescient views in publications such as The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Wired UK, and contributing interviews to the BBC, CNN, Arirang TV, Swiss SRF, ZDF, ARD, ARTE, and appearing as special guest in many documentaries.

He is based in Zurich Switzerland.

Esteban Mezzano

General Counsel Operations & Sustainability at Nestlé, based in Switzerland (headquarters)

With over 20 years of experience as a business lawyer in Nestlé in different countries, Esteban currently leads a global legal team dedicated to supporting the Group’s Corporate Operations (procurement, agriculture, manufacturing, supply chain, and sustainability). On sustainability, his team oversees the legal dimension of important ESG regulations and commitments made by Nestlé, such as those related to climate change, plastic packaging, water, and human rights.

Daniel Cronin

Entrepreneur, Lecturer, TV Presenter and Keynote Speaker

He is the Co-Founder of the full-service app-agency allaboutapps, a joint venture of i5invest and runtastic, Co-Founder and Member of the Board of AustrianStartups (a non-profit to strengthen the entrepreneurial eco-system) and Co-Founder and partner at the Vienna Mentoring Group, a mentoring program for early stage startups.

He lectures at several Universities including the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, the Vienna University of Technology, the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the Medical University of Vienna.

He has hosted more than 400 events on startups and innovation including the Pioneers Festival, Bits & Pretzels, the FifteenSeconds Festival, Podim, The Spark – Der Deutsche Digitalpreis” (The German Digital Awards) and the “Tag der Deutschen Industrie” (Day of German Industry/TDI`17) and in February 2018 he gave his US-debut hosting “Moving Forward” (a conference with an innovation focus) in New York. Also in 2018 he was invited to join the Future Leaders Program of the 15. Science and Technology in Society forum (STS forum) in Kyoto, Japan.

He is nicknamed “The Pitch Professor” and is considered as one of the leading experts and trainers on pitching in Europe with more than 450 trainings held both for startups and large corporations. In 2021 he was trusted to design and run a Train-The-Trainer Pitch-Training-Program for the European Innovation Council (EIC), with trainers all over Europe successfully applying his methods.

Daniel has spoken to innovators, top executives and startups at Audi, Bank Austria, Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa Technik, PWC, TEDx, Siemens, Peek & Cloppenburg, T-Mobile, Kapsch, Red Bull, Adidas, Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) and several others and at global conferences about startups, culture, transformation, pitching, innovation and corporate & startup collaboration.